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Memorial de la Shoah

Mémorial de la Shoah
courtyard of the Shoah Memorial building in Paris
Former name Mémorial du martyr juif inconnu
Established January 2005 (2005-01)
Location Paris, Le Marais, France
Coordinates 48°51′17″N 2°21′22″E / 48.854846°N 2.356196°E / 48.854846; 2.356196
Key holdings archives of World War II deportations, personal objects of deportees, Memorials
Founder Isaac Schneersohn
Website www.memorialdelashoah.org

Mémorial de la Shoah is the holocaust museum in Paris, France. The memorial is in the district of Le Marais, in the third and fourth arrondissement, which had a large Jewish population at the beginning of WWII.

The memorial was opened, by President Jacques Chirac, on 27 January 2005. This day was chosen to coincide with International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp. The memorial underwent a major renovation in 2005, creating exhibition spaces, a multimedia center, and a reading room.

The forecourt of the memorial, above the memorial crypt, includes a circular memorial listing the names of the death camps and the Warsaw Ghetto. There is also a wall with seven bas-reliefs by Arbit Blatas that symbolize the camps and the persecution of the Jews. The facade of the building, above the forecourt, has two inscription. First, a line from an adaptation of Deuteronomy 25:17 by Zalman Schnoeur (translated from Hebrew).

Remember what Amalek did unto our generation, which exterminated 600 myriad bodies and souls even though there was no war.

Second, a quote from Justin Godart, Minister of Health and Honorary President of the Committee for the Unknown Jewish Martyr (translated from French).

Before the unknown Jewish martyr, incline your head in piety and respect for all the martyrs; incline your thoughts to accompany them along their path of sorrow. They will lead you to the highest pinnacle of justice and truth.

Several walls that make a passageway to the building list the names of the approximately 76,000 French Jews who were deported and did not return. They are listed alphabetically by year of deportation.

The memorial crypt predates the Memorial de la Shoah; in 1957, the ashes of victims from the different death camps and the Warsaw Ghetto were buried in dirt from Israel. The crypt also includes a door from the Warsaw Ghetto and the "Jewish Files" created by the Vichy government to identify Jewish citizens. These files were later used by the Nazis to locate Jews for deportation.


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